Killer Bees Attack New Orleans

Africanized honeybees, also called killer bees, have settled in New Orleans. Earlier this year, demolition workers found and captured a colony of the bees. Recently more bees were found close to the same spot and they may have come from the same colony or may have come from a ship or barge.

The Department of Agriculture put traps along the north-south line throughout the state and at all of the deepwater ports to monitor the bees. Killer bees have the same venom as honeybees, but attack in groups instead of alone. They are also smaller than honeybees. If anyone sees a killer bee, it is recommended to find cover quickly.

Africanized bees first came from an experiment to increase honey production in Brazil that went wrong. A swarm escaped the lab in 1957 and went north. Then they mated with native bees. They reached Texas in 1990 and spread to California and Florida. They were first found in Louisiana in 2005.

Murder Victim's Father Chokes Killer in Courtroom

It is reported in Steubenville, OH that the father of a murder victim dived across the defense table and tried to choke his son’s killer in the courtroom.

A man by the name of Antonio Clifford had pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, and tampering with evidence in the shooting death of Joshua Ryan Sweat that took place in 2006. Joshua Sweat tried to buy drugs behind a bar when he was robbed and shot once in the back of the head and died later at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Before sentencing on Monday, August 6th, the judge allowed Sweat’s relatives to stand and read statements. The father approached Clifford and told him that he wanted to show him a picture. He then attacked Clifford and screamed obscenities at him while the police wrestled the father to the ground. The father will not be charged with anything. Clifford was sentenced to 33 years to life in prison and prosecutors chose not to give him the death penalty since he pleaded guilty.